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We Made a Mistake!

“My understanding is that the lack of that language in the House version is a mistake, and will be put right. I hope that is true.”

So said WHO radio’s Simon Conway Monday during his drive time radio show, as more and more Iowans are seeing what Iowa Gun Owners has been saying for over a week now.

You see, while Senator Rick Bertrand’s Stand-Your-Ground law (SF 262) contains the all-important immunity language that gun owners deserve, the bill moving through the House right now does not.

Candidly, if the final version of this language doesn’t contain these protections, then nothing will stop gun owners from facing politically driven prosecutions or frivolous civil suits from a criminal’s estate after a self-defense shooting. Insiders are reporting to us that moderates in the House are insisting on this watered-down language as a condition of passing the bill.

They want to have the credit for passing Stand-Your-Ground law, while being able to tell anti-gunners that they made important concessions.

Now they are saying that they made a mistake.

Whether it was a mistake or intentional, this is why we’ve been sounding the alarm on this bill for over a week.

Sure, it’s not made legislators in Des Moines or their pals in the media very happy with us — but that’s not our concern.

At all.

We only represent one group of people: the members and supporters of Iowa Gun Owners.

And it’s the members of this organization that have given us a pro-gun majority in the legislature for the first time in almost two decades.

So we’re not about to sit back and just “trust them to deal with this.”

Gun owners have been sold that bill of goods by House leadership before.

In 2012, when the House was on the verge of passing a solid pre-emption reform bill, it was gutted in committee at the last minute by a lethal amendment offered by Chairman Clel Baudler.

Later, when the House was about to pass a Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms amendment here in Iowa — the bill was stopped by a harmful amendment rammed through by House leaders who killed the bill.

Now they’ve made a “mistake” on Stand-Your-Ground.

All of this continues to reinforce the absolute necessity for grassroots gun owners to continue to loudly make their voices heard in Des Moines. Please do that today by contacting your Representative and insisting that any Stand-Your-Ground law they pass contain the immunity language that SF 262 contains!

You can find out who your Representative is and locate his phone number and email address by going here.

You can also call the House switchboard and ask to be connected to your legislator automatically. That number is 515-281-3221.

Please contact them.

Simply put, there’s too much riding on this to hope they get it right.

We have to constantly be on our guard and make sure that the immunity language contained in SF 262 is in the final version. You see, it’s easy to ‘pass a gun bill’ these days –- you and I made sure of that by crushing anti-gun incumbents last fall and flipping the Iowa Senate.

And there are lots of groups lurking around the Capitol that are only interested in clamoring for the credit about ‘passing a gun bill.’

But, umm, it sort of matters what’s actually in the gun bill that we pass, don’t you think?

We do too.

So make your voice heard right away.

Call, email, and message your Representative via Facebook and tell them to fix this mistake — and make sure that immunity language is added back into the Stand-Your-Ground law on the move in the House!

When you’re done, please share this with your friends and family on social media by forwarding this message.

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As we work around the clock in the Capitol trying to advance Stand-Your-Ground law, we’re also working hard to come to as many gun shows as we can. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you and other gun owners to make your voices heard! We need your help. Liberal media outlets from Council Bluffs to Cedar Rapids are working overtime to kill this legislation with